Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin is preparing for the inaugural launch of its New Glenn rocket from Florida early on Monday, nearing a pivotal debut in Earth orbit that will mark a major step towards a long-awaited goal of competing with Elon Musk’s SpaceX in the satellite launch market.
The mission, which will blast off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, is the culmination of a decade-long, multi-billion-dollar development journey.
It will include an attempt to land New Glenn’s first stage booster on a sea-fairing barge in the Atlantic Ocean 10 minutes after liftoff, while the rocket’s second stage continues toward orbit.
“The thing we’re most nervous about is the booster landing,” Mr Bezos, who founded Blue Origin in 2000, said in a pre-launch interview.
“Clearly on a first flight you could have an anomaly at any mission phase, so anything could happen,” Mr Bezos added.
Secured inside New Glenn’s payload bay is the first prototype of Blue Origin‘s Blue Ring vehicle, a maneuverable spacecraft the company plans to sell to the Pentagon and commercial customers for national security and satellite servicing missions.
Key points
- Rocket launch called off
- Blue Origin faces last-minute delays
- Blue Origin rocket set for launch
Launch called off
08:14 , Alexander ButlerJeff Bezos’ Blue Origin New Glenn rocket launch has been called off after hours of delays.
Writing on X, the company said: “We’re standing down on today’s launch attempt to troubleshoot a vehicle subsystem issue that will take us beyond our launch window.
“We’re reviewing opportunities for our next launch attempt.”
Blue Origin faces last-minute delays
08:12 , Alexander ButlerJeff Bezos’ Blue Origin prepared for the inaugural launch of its New Glenn rocket from Florida early on Monday but extended the mission countdown to study unspecified last-minute issues, as it neared a pivotal debut in Earth orbit to break into the satellite launch market.
Standing 30 stories tall, the partially reusable New Glenn launcher sat on Blue Origin’s launchpad at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, ready for a liftoff that was initially scheduled for 1am (6am GMT) after being loaded with methane and liquid oxygen propellants.
But late in the countdown, Blue Origin repeatedly pushed back the liftoff time, inching closer to the end of New Glenn’s launch window at 4am.
By 2:20am, a spokesperson on a company live feed said mission teams were examining “a few anomalies,” without explaining what those issues were.
Blue Origin rocket set for launch
07:56 , Alexander ButlerJeff Bezos’ Blue Origin is preparing for the inaugural launch of its New Glenn rocket from Florida early on Monday, nearing a pivotal debut in Earth orbit that will mark a major step towards a long-awaited goal of competing with Elon Musk’s SpaceX in the satellite launch market.
The mission, which will blast off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, is the culmination of a decade-long, multi-billion-dollar development journey.
It will include an attempt to land New Glenn’s first stage booster on a sea-fairing barge in the Atlantic Ocean 10 minutes after liftoff, while the rocket’s second stage continues toward orbit.
Key objective to reach orbit safely, Blue Origin says
07:46 , Alexander ButlerBlue Origin’s key objective is to reach orbit safely, with anything beyond that the “icing on the cake”, the company said.
Writing on X, Blue Origin said: “We want to be clear about our objectives. This is our first flight and we’ve prepared rigorously for it.
“But no amount of ground testing or mission simulations is a replacement for flying this rocket. Our key objective today is to reach orbit safely.
“Anything beyond that is icing on the cake. We know landing the booster on our first try offshore in the Atlantic is ambitious—but we’re going for it.
“No matter what happens, we’ll learn, refine, and apply that knowledge to our next launch.”
New lift-off time of 8.15am GMT
07:43 , Alexander ButlerWe are now looking at lift-off in just over 30 minutes at 8.15am GMT (2:48am EST).
New Glenn twice as powerful as Musk’s Falcon 9 rocket
07:38 , Alexander ButlerThe development of New Glenn has spanned three Blue Origin CEOs and faced numerous delays as Elon Musk’s SpaceX grew into an industry juggernaut with its reusable Falcon 9, the world’s most active rocket.
Bezos in late 2023 moved to speed things up at Blue Origin, prioritising the development of New Glenn and its BE-4 engines.
He named Dave Limp, an Amazon veteran, as CEO, who employees say introduced a sense of urgency to compete with SpaceX.
New Glenn is more than twice as powerful as SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and has dozens of customer launch contracts collectively worth billions of dollars lined up.
Pictured: New Glenn rocket stands ready for launch
07:29 , Alexander Butler
Watch live: Amazon’s Jeff Bezos launches Blue Origin rocket to rival Elon Musk’s SpaceX
07:25 , Alexander Butler
Watch live: Jeff Bezos launches Blue Origin rocket to rival Elon Musk’s SpaceX
‘Good luck’ says Bezos competitor Elon Musk
07:22 , Alexander ButlerBillionaire SpaceX owner Elon Musk has wished Blue Origin’s space launch good luck as it prepared to take off on Monday.
New lift-off time of 7.48am GMT
07:19 , Alexander ButlerWe are now looking at lift-off in just over 30 minutes at 7:48am GMT (2:48am EST).
